


Physical Therapy

by Sunaiya



Category: Naruto
Genre: Artist Naruto, Car Accidents, Doctor Sasuke, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Graphic Description, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Rough Kissing, SasuNaru - Freeform, but sasuke is still Sasuke, gentle Sasuke moments
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 03:00:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17654771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunaiya/pseuds/Sunaiya
Summary: Naruto's life is just starting to fall in place. He has the job he always dreamed of as an animation artist and his boss is giving him the opportunity of a lifetime to prove himself as an asset to the company. His excitement is short lived when he and his friends go out that night to celebrate and he ends up on the path of an oncoming bus. Waking up a week later with a battered body and a lot of pain, he has to come face to face with the reality that he may never draw again. There is a little hope when a young and successful doctor, Dr. Uchiha Sasuke, one of the best physical therapists in the city, is given his case. Despite Sasuke's almost emotionless outward appearance, Naruto learns through the Doctor's actions how much he cares about his recovery. But their relationship might fall over that line between a doctor/patient relationship to become something more. Naruto already thinks he is broken beyond repair, will he be able to survive this fall.





	1. Accident

**Author's Note:**

> New boooook! I've had this book sitting in my archive of unfinished idea's for a while and thought, why not, I'd like to finish this story I started. So here we are. :) If you like this book, check out my other one's. I hope you guys enjoy this story!! So I guess let's get started. :3

The streets were wet as they had been the past few days. The first rays of sunlight were peaking over the tall city buildings causing the streets to sparkle different shades of gold. It had finally stopped raining but the evidence of the downpour was everywhere you looked. People tried to avoid getting too close to the side of the road lest they get a second morning shower from the passing cars. The buildings were shining more so than usual with the cascading drops that leaked down coming to rest on the sidewalk which was dyed a dark grey. 

A young 22 year old man was one of the people walking through the crowd, the difference between him and the many others was he was excited to be up at seven in the morning going to work. His five foot six inch frame was practically bouncing in anticipation as he waited for the digital crosswalk sign to change from a red hand to the white glow saying it was safe to walk. A particularly large gust of frigid morning air swirled around his body and ruffled his blonde hair which caused it to tickle his tanned cheek, marred on each side with three whisker-like scars. 

His blue eyes were practically glowing while he continued his path, seeing his destination coming up in the distance. The building was one of the tallest in the city, scraping the clouds with its near one hundred floors. The entrance had an overhang made of a gold colored metal and a sign was printed in silver lettering on the front with the company logo, an image of a black and orange cartoon fox, next to it. ‘Kyuubi Animations’ was where he worked, the company was a multi-million dollar industry that put out some of the best animated movies in the world. 

Uzumaki Naruto was his name, and he was one of the newest team members who specialized in the character design portion of process. So far he had only worked on small skits and sketches, but he hoped one day his patience would pay off. He walked across the shiny black and white marbled floor to the elevator next to the front desk. He nodded to Ino, the nice receptionist with long blonde hair and a curvy body that most would be jealous of. She always had the same purple business jacket that she draped over the back of her cushioned swivel chair. 

On bad days that were particularly stressful for her, Naruto would notice she would subconsciously twist slightly from side to side in the chair. Thankfully today she looked cheery and ready to work. When he noticed the elevator beginning to close, he was quick to sprint and put his hand between the metal frame and the opening causing it spring back open. He packed himself in with the group of about five other employees and pressed for floor fifty three. 

Fixing his hair from the action, he made sure the gel still held the blonde spikes neatly on his head. He smoothed out his dress shirt and and listened to the stale elevator music which only made the atmosphere more awkward. They stopped three times before getting to the floor he needed to be on. When he walked into the office it was chaos, anyone else would have felt the oncoming headache of what would be a busy day. Instead of a headache he felt the upward twitching of his lips in a small smile. This was everything he had dreamed of in college, both the good and the bad. 

Everyone had creative ideas, and the willpower to argue for them. Deadlines and and phone calls, sketches and digital conversions, he wanted it all. He had graduated highschool at 17 and college at 21. After interning with the company for a few months, fetching coffee every morning and organizing papers every night, they decided his skills would fit in with what they needed. Passing the entrance into the loud room he quickly found his desk. He clicked the button to turn the computer on and the wirey sound of it booting up was satisfying. The surface of his metal and glass desk was modern, yet slightly cluttered with loose sketches and paperwork, among other things. 

He gently set his half empty Styrofoam coffee cup down next to the rubber band ball that he had made during lunch break last weak when he forgot his food at home. Underneath the glass structure that made up most of the desk was a lamp that was used often for tracing important drawings. It wasn’t much, but it was his and he took pride in the entirety of it. He sat in the chair and waited for the computer to finish waking up so he could check his schedule for the day. 

________

A few hours into his shift, Naruto was focused deeply on the skit for one of the small cartoons they were supposed to finish in a few months. It was to spread awareness about the health of the oceans in a way that got across to both children and adults alike. Suddenly, his attention was drawn the the sound of his name being called. 

“Uzumaki, I need to have a word with you” his boss Jiraiya called out to him. Two of his coworkers attention was drawn to this, his friends Kiba and Sai. Kiba was the first to voice his opinion, not that it was wanted by the blonde at the moment. 

“Ooh shit, someone fucked something up” The brunette teased, trying to stifle laughter. 

Sai was the next to speak “I’m sure blondie will be fine, you got off pretty easy when you stole the bosses lunch that one time.” he smirked. 

“Hey! I got enough extra paperwork to keep me working 12 hour days for a week thanks to that. Maybe he should label things better and people won’t eat his stuff.” Kiba grumbled clearly not liking that the conversation was turned on him. 

“Maybe you shouldn’t eat things that don’t belong to you. Anyways I’ll be back, I’ve gotta see what he wants.” Naruto remarked before rising out of his chair to greet his boss. Once he got there he reached out his hand which Jiraiya took in his own in a firm handshake. They walked into the older man’s office, Jiraiya sitting in his seat behind his large wooden desk and Naruto taking one of the smaller chairs across from it. 

“How is the place treating you Naruto? Anything you working on right now?”

Naruto was taken slightly aback by the sudden concern for how he was holding up, but replied excitedly nonetheless. “Great actually sir. Everyone has been helpful and I’m currently working on the skit for the new short film ‘Plastic Waves’.” The white haired man nodded his head in approval arms crossing over his broad chest and he looked into Naruto’s eyes with seriousness that suggested what he was going to say next would be important. Naruto swallowed but remained composed. 

“Well Naruto I want you to stop working on it, pass the project to Kiba, that lazy mutt could do with some more work.” He said hardly. Naruto’s mouth open and closed in shock, oh no, what had he done wrong, was he being fired. 

“Sir if there is something I have done wrong I assure you it won’t happen again, did I make a mistake in last week’s proposal? I can fix it I promise.” He was full blown panicking now, this was his dream job, he couldn’t lose it after only just beginning. 

“Relax son, you have done nothing wrong. Quite the opposite actually, I have been getting nothing but good reports about you and Shiki actually went as far as to say you were his most promising employee. I want you to quit working on that skit because I’m assigning you to something else. Have you heard of our new project ‘A Fox Tail’? It’s a story about a young fox who is ostracized for having nine tails instead of one like his peers and family. It’s basically following him on his journey to prove that sometimes our differences can be our greatest strengths. A full length animated movie that is expected to have a great turnout once complete. I would like you to be one of the artists for this movie.” 

Naruto was at a loss for words, he had thought he was in trouble and instead he was getting offered to work on his first full length movie. When he got over the initial shock it took all the strength he had not to get up and hug the man in front of him. “Yes Sir that would be such an honor and I promise I won’t let you down!” He stood to shake the hand of Jiraiya who was looking at him proudly and with high expectation. 

“You’ve earned it, honestly I wish more people came in here with the enthusiasm you have on a daily basis. There will be a meeting in conference room three tomorrow, they will brief you on everything and get you settled in. Good luck.” The blonde nodded rapidly before making his way back out into the bustling office. 

Once back at his desk Kiba shared a look of curiosity with Sai and peeked over his computer, waggling his eyebrows at his friend. “Sooo, how did it go?” Naruto shook his head still trying to wrap his brain around the situation. 

“It went great, Jiraiya is assigning me to that new movie about the nine tailed fox. I’m getting to work on a full length movie for the first time.” Sai looked shocked, his eyes widening a fraction of an inch which was a lot for him considering he usually had a snark attitude void of much emotion. “Aww man, no fair you’re so lucky. But I’m happy for you, let’s get with the others tonight and celebrate your moving up in the company.” Kiba said. 

Naruto would normally turn down such an offer on a work night, but this was a special occasion so he nodded “sounds like fun”. 

“Awesome, we can hit up the bars downtown and maybe, just maybe one of us could go home with a hot girl on our arm.” 

Naruto shook his head in disapproval, Kiba was wild and his libito could not be matched by any other man on earth. He felt bad for whoever his future girlfriend would be. The blonde had a girlfriend once back in highschool, her name had been Haruko and she was really nice and all. But the relationship didn’t last long, she wanted things that he wasn't ready for. It was lame and something he would never live down, but the humiliation of the whole thing made it impossible for him to be with anyone else ever since. Which meant yes, he was still a complete virgin. 

He ignored Kiba bickering with Sai about the importance of regular sex for health purposes and got back to work. Excited for what the week would have in store for him. 

_____

After hours, Naruto, Kiba, and Sai went their separate ways to go home and get ready for the evening. Naruto made it through the busy streets of returning people safely to his apartment. It was small but humble and was really cozy to him. He had gotten permission to paint the dull walls and opted for a bright orange color that went well with his Umber colored curtains and white furniture. He walked into the kitchen to grab a grape soda and took it to his bedroom to begin looking for an outfit to wear. 

Tonight he wanted to stand out, it had been so long since he had thought about the prospect of starting his life in other ways. He had his dream job and a safe home, but he couldn’t help the emptiness he felt at wanting someone to share it with. He turned on the television to listen to the news while rummaging through the rows of clothes dangling from hangers in his closet. 

“Next up is a rising topic throughout not only the city, but the country as well.” the news lady's voice announced. 

“Yes Mei, I know exactly what you are talking about, a certain young doctor who just surfaced am I right?”

“Absolutely Akihito, Uchiha Sasuke, who popped up out of nowhere at the beginning of the year, with quite and impressive background, is well on his way to becoming one of the best doctors this city has ever seen. He’s reported to have taken in cases that seemed to be mission impossible and changed lives forever.”

“Truly an admirable person whom I’m sure many young people are looking up to right now. He graduated highschool at only fifteen and is now twenty-seven years old with a medical license in Physical Therapy. Doctor Uchiha already has a net worth of over two million, and has even been rumored to have helped one of our beloved Idols, Miss Koharu after her stage accident. There is no telling how far this young man will go, but he is headed in the right direction.”

“An amazing story for sure, next up, cold and flu season is right at our doorstep, what you can do to prevent it and keep your families healthy this year…”

Naruto wasn’t paying much attention to what was being said as he found the perfect outfit. A White T-shirt that had ‘Vibes’ printed on the front in a blue graffiti font. He matched it with a pair of acid washed orange skinny jeans with zippers at the ankles. He decided to complete the look with his crystal necklace on a black cloth chain and his ankle high converse. After he put the outfit on and fixed his hair, he guzzled the rest of his soda down and grabbed his keys before making his way back out of the house. 

Kiba said they were going to meet at Gilreg Tavern, it was only about a ten minute bus ride to the place and he handed his pass to the driver before taking his seat. Once the bus stopped he got off and followed the glowing sign to the building, the smell of food assaulting his senses reminding him of his hunger. Just before he reached the door he bumped into someone hard and nearly landed right on his ass before he caught himself on the brick wall next to him.

“Hey watch where you’re going bastard, it’s a little early to already be drunk.” He snipped out and looked up to meet dark brown eyes. They were so dark they could almost be categorized as black all the way through were it not for the faintest outline of a pupil in the middle. The man had equally dark hair and had quite a few inches on Naruto himself with a much sturdier build. He looked rather angry at the moment and the blonde wasn’t sure if it was because of his comment or something else. One thing he knew was he did not want to get in a fight with almost six feet of pure strength. 

“L-look man just be careful where you’re going, sorry I should have paid more attention too” The man seemed to observe him with a calculating gaze as if trying to figure him out through a staring competition. It made Naruto squirm slightly under the scrutiny and he waited for the man to say something, anything. 

“Hn” was all that escaped those lips and he navigated himself around Naruto to continue walking down the sidewalk. 

“What the fuck, the least he could have done was apologize. What an asshole.” Naruto grumbled under his breath, finally reaching the door of the tavern ready to drown his anger in a nice shot of Vodka. 

He located his friends easily seeing Kiba, Sai, Shikamaru, and Chouji. They all were waiting to congratulate him and discuss his plans from here. Naruto was surprised to hear that Shikamaru had exciting news himself. The man was a doctor who focuses predominantly on neurology and how the human mind processed information. Recently he had been given the opportunity to put together and head his own research team. Pretty soon though his vision would become fuzzy and they all would decide they’ve had more than enough to drink for the night. 

It was about one in the morning when Naruto stumbled out onto the practically dead streets. 

“Y’know, hey hey Shikamaru, y’know somethin’? He slurred 

“What, do ya wanna tell me buddy?” Shikamaru, who normally had a very composed and almost bored attitude spoke exuberantly. 

“I needa girlfriend, ish so lonely sometimes, help me get a girl man” He said laughing a little. 

“‘Ruto, there is no way any girl will look at you right now, you sooo drunk bro” Kiba laughed out, not any more sober than the rest of them. 

“I can too get a girl right now cause I’m sexyyyy” He sang out causing a scoff to come from Chouji who was much more of a quiet drunk, and probably ate enough chips to absorb most of the alcohol anyways. 

They were all dancing in the streets not sure where exactly they were headed since they all lived in different directions. Naruto went to lean on Kiba, wrapping his arm around the other boy. 

“Instead of goin’ home with a hotty tonight yur goin home with us, how do you feel?” Naruto teased, knowing his breath was probably ticking his friends ear. 

“Oh shove off ‘Ruto’” the brunette said, pushing his friend lightly but in Naruto’s state it was enough to throw him completely off balance and into the street laughing. His ears were ringing at the sudden movement and he registered shouts coming from his friends’ direction and vaguely recalled seeing Kiba’s hand reaching out to him when suddenly, two blaring lights assaulted his vision and he was hit with a force great enough to send him flying several feet back. 

He was swimming in and out of consciousness,everything was moving in slow motion as he tried to move but couldn’t get anything on his body to work. There was pain everywhere, it felt like someone had submerged his body in a fire and it was eating at his skin and insides. He twitched his fingers registering something wet and sticky on the tips. He cracked his swollen eyes open slightly and saw red liquid staining them. On the ground around him were shards of glass that glinted rainbow with the colorful flashing signs of the shops and bars around him. “Oh” he was able to rasp out. His voice was unrecognizable to him and he heard screams from all around. His eyes were beginning to feel heavy and all he wanted right now was to sleep. His tired mind was jolted awake suddenly when he felt a hand on his face. 

“Naruto, Naruto, you can’t fall asleep. Keep looking at me. Oh my god Chouji call an ambulance.” He heard Shikamaru’s voice shouting out. ‘What’s wrong Shika?’ is what he wanted to ask. Confusion was weighing heavy on his mind and he noticed the pool of red around him was growing bigger. He registered sirens in the distance and they echoed in his head causing him to want to cover his ears. But he still couldn’t move anything on his body. It was as if he had been paralyzed and it scared him more than anything. He looked down at his right arm and noticed a metal rod going straight through the appendage. The sight almost made him throw up and something clicked in his head. The substance on his fingers, it’s his blood. He’s bleeding. 

He gathered all of his strength to utter one word to his friend who was trying to put his hands over a painful spot on Naruto’s stomach. “He-lp”

“It’s going to be okay Naruto just keep breathing, the ambulance is almost here. Fuck fuck fuck, Kiba get over here and help me put pressure on this. It wont… It wont stop coming out, I can’t get it to stop.” Shikamaru was panicking, something that Naruto had only ever seen once many years ago when his mom had been diagnosed with cancer. 

Kiba rushed over to join them, his cheeks red and stained with tears. “It’s my fault, I pushed him, I never saw the bus coming. This is all my fault. If he doesn’t make it I will never forgive myself.” Kiba looked sad, ‘Don’t be sad Kiba, whatever you did we can fix it’ Naruto wanted to comfort. 

“He’s still awake Kiba, don’t say anything to upset him, if you get his pulse too high the blood will leak out faster.” Shikamaru said hardly, to which Kiba nodded his head biting back tears. Blue and red lights filled his vision and everything began to blur into blobs of color. He felt his body being jostled slightly and thought he cried out in pain. Everything hurt, he just wanted to sleep, for the pain to go away. 

He was placed on a cushioned surface, feeling himself being moved and saw the frame of what he guessed was Shikamaru running after him. He looked up at the forms of two people on either side of him and he was pushed into a very bright white area. He squinted his eyes at the sharp change from the dark street to the lighted structure. It didn’t get any better when his eyes were pried open and a brighter light was directed right at them. 

“Hey buddy I need you to stay awake for me okay. You’ve been in an accident and we’re taking you to Konoha hospital right now. I know you are in pain but I need you to take a deep breath okay” Naruto would have nodded his head if he could and felt cold plastic being placed over his nose and mouth administering cool air to his lungs as he breathed in. “Good boy, very good just like that. Keep breathing for me. Ren I need 1000 milligrams of Tranexamic Acid administered intravenously. Keep his head elevated and we need to tie off his leg to prevent too much blood loss. There’s nothing we can do about the torso until we get there except keep pressure.”

Everything was moving too fast and Naruto was getting dizzy, it felt like an eternity of torture before he registered movement again and this time was much faster. He saw a bunch of lights overhead on the ceiling and they left luminescent trails as they flew past. 

“Twenty-Two year old male, Uzumaki Naruto, hit by a bus on his way home with friends. Massive blood loss and open wounds sustained to his left leg, torso, and right arm. Right leg is broken in two spots and bruising on ribs suggest a fracture there as well. Head trauma is uncertain at the moment but he still remains relatively responsive and conscious. Glass is present and lodged in various spots on his body, but not cause for immediate concern. No arteries appear to be torn but he needs surgery now, we are worried his broken ribs could puncture his lung.”

Were they talking about him? He was hit by a bus, that’s not good. The last thing he saw was Shikamaru telling him he’d make it before he was pushed through two double doors and passed out. He wasn’t ready to die.


	2. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto wakes up in the hospital and has to deal with the information and emotions he is presented with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's only been a day but I thought I would just go ahead and post the second chapter. Thanks so much for the amazing feedback so far! :3

When Naruto woke up the first thing he noticed was the discomfort of something in his throat. Reflexively he began coughing and heard alarms going off around him. Suddenly there was a shadow over him and he felt the object in his throat being removed which only spurred his gagging fit. When it was out he took a deep breath and coughed a couple more times to clear his lungs. 

His mouth was dry like cotton and there was an annoying beeping noise coming from somewhere next to him. He went to move and instantly regretted it when searing hot pain went up his body. His grunt came out as more of a strangled choking noise and he felt arms pushing on his shoulders to keep him still. 

“Mr. Uzumaki can you hear me?” A nice female voice spoke to him. His throat was so sore and dry that when he opened his mouth he wasn’t too shocked to hear nothing came out except for a rasped breathy noise. So he nodded instead. The woman was slender and had black hair that stopped just above her shoulders with gentle looking dark brown eyes. She overall seemed to be a nice person and he would have given her his award winning Uzumaki smile had the circumstances been different. 

“Good, I just removed your intubator so don’t try to talk right now. This is good, it means you are breathing on your own now and on your way to recovering. You were admitted to the hospital about a week ago with numerous injuries including a wound to your left thigh that thankfully didn’t reach your artery. Your abdomen had a puncture wound and doctors were able to repair the kidney that it damaged. Doctors also removed a metal rod from your right arm, it sustained some nerve damage in the process. You had a minor concussion and two breaks in your right leg. Small fracture in two of your ribs but they are already healing nicely. It’s a miracle you are alive right now, but you are going to be perfectly fine after you heal up a bit more and begin our rehabilitation program. I think you have a high chance of living a relatively normal life.”

‘Relatively normal, what the fuck does that mean?’ He tried to speak again getting frustrated and slamming his uninjured arm down on the blankets. The nurse smiled sympathetically at him and reached for something in a bin on the wall. She pulled out a whiteboard and marker, bringing them over to Naruto. She set the board in his lap and placed the marker in his left hand, using a button on the bed, she sat him up a little bit. 

“Here dear, whatever you wanna say you can write it there.” He nodded but started getting frustrated again at the struggle of writing with his left hand. He was able to scratch out a few words. ‘My arm, Okay?’ She squinted to read the writing.

“Well honey, as I said it has to heal. We’ve set you up with one of the best physical therapy specialists this city has to offer.” He shook his head violently, that’s not what he meant. The nurse waited patiently for him to write something else. ‘Can use again?’ She sighed deeply and looked saddened and contemplative as if choosing her words carefully. When she did speak her voice was full of exactly what Naruto didn’t want to hear, pity.

“The nerve damage sustained to your right arm was rather extensive. The rod went right through the muscles and the doctor had to remove quite a few parts of damaged tissue. Blood flow was stopped through your hand for quite a while. Though we were able to save it and restore proper blood flow, it is hard to say how well the muscles and nerves with heal. According to the surgeon, it’s possible you may never gain complete feeling of the lower half of your right arm again including the hand. You’ll have to relearn how to write with it, and there is a small chance that… that you may not be able to use it again, even for writing purposes. I know this is a shock, but you need to stay calm and trust us.” 

Naruto couldn’t believe it, his life was over before it had begun. If he couldn’t even write he’d never be able to draw again. He felt something wet slide down his cheek and touched his face. He was crying. The nurse tried her best to comfort him but he shook off her touch on his shoulder and turned his head away. He just wanted to be left alone right now. He couldn’t do this, he wasn’t strong enough. 

“My name is Shizune, Dr. Uchiha will be in in a little while to assess your injuries and begin basic therapy to get your muscles moving again so they don’t atrophy and turn to mush on you. You are not to get out of bed though under any conditions or you could tear your stitches. Try to sleep dear, you’ll feel better.”

Nothing could make him feel better right now, silent sobs wracked his sore body and as if a damn had been released, tears were falling in streams across his swollen face. Why had they even saved his arm if it was nothing but a useless piece of meat. Medical waste was what it now had been reduced to. He prayed to whatever force out there that the ground would swallow him, that he would be put out of his misery. 

He found himself thinking back to when he had been in middle school and first started really getting into drawing. He had dealt with all kinds of hardships at such a young age. He lost his parents in a car accident at only five years old, being the only one to survive. He had been taken in by his godfather Iruka but his mentality suffered, putting him behind in his classes in elementary school. He started acting out for attention and because of this no one ever wanted to be around him. He was stuck in his own emotions that had been tearing him apart with no outlet. That was until he had been in a fit of rage one afternoon after school. He was a twelve year old boy who was desperate to express himself. He had picked up a pencil, already shortened from sharpening over and over. Without thinking he gathered all of his emotions, letting them flow out of his hand, through the pencil, and onto the paper. 

Looking back on that drawing had always made him laugh, it was so poorly drawn but through years he honed his skills and the pain dissipated over time. All of it had become a distant memory of what he never wanted to be again. Now here he was, the one thing that made his life meaningful had been taken from him. It was like the universe was trying to put him through torture, giving him a little happiness only to snatch it away.

All of his attempts at sleep were failed and he spent most of the afternoon staring out the large windows to the people going about their lives below. Some came into the hospital in a wheelchair, others with illness, and the lucky few came in only to leave thirty minutes later with a bandage on their arm signifying routine blood work. On the other side of a grassy medium, the hospital was separated from the rest of the world. Cars passed by and they were all so close, yet it felt like it would take him a million years to get there if he tried. 

This place began to feel more and more like a prison that kept the healthy, normal people secluded from those of them who were not so fortunate. If he were to flat line right now, the world wouldn’t even blink an eye. And so it was for every other person that walked in here and didn’t walk back out. 

All of a sudden, a knock resounded from the door in his room. He figured it was just Shizune coming back in to check on him so he didn’t bother turning his head. It wasn’t until a deep, melodic voice spoke up that he looked over to the source. 

“Uzumaki, Naruto?” He was more than shocked to see that that voice had come from a familiar face. It was the boy who he had run into on the streets before his accident. The asshole who couldn’t even spare an apology for nearly knocking him to the ground. Recognition crossed briefly across the pale features before those dark eyes composed once more. Naruto swallowed and watched apprehensively as the male closed the door to the room and closed the curtains over. The black haired doctor seemed to notice his trepidation opening his mouth to speak. 

“It’s for privacy purposes, physical therapy can be quite painful especially in the early stages and many patients tend to get frustrated. My name is Sasuke Uchiha, you and I are going to be working together for a while to get you back on your feet. Today will just be simple routine stuff to prevent your muscles from Atrophying. You’ve been laying in this bed for a week with no movement, and your body is finally starting to heal. Any questions?”

Naruto had a lot of them, but not many could be written with his non dominant hand on the small whiteboard in his lap. Not to mention he wasn’t exactly to pleased to see this man would have free rein over his injured body after he insulted the guy only a week prior. Sasuke didn’t seem to mind the silence though as he picked up the boy’s chart that was dangling over the edge of the bed and turned the pages taking in the information. 

“Quite a nasty accident Naruto, you are lucky to be alive.” The blonde scoffed at that, lucky is not a way he would categorize this situation. Sasuke’s eyes stared at him with curiosity. “You think not?” He remarked before continuing when Naruto gave no reaction. “I’ve seen many people come into these rooms and never leave. Others leave completely paralyzed who still had more hope in their eyes than you do now. Don’t be so quick to give up on yourself, the pain fades in time.” Sasuke began writing things on the clipboard and Naruto began writing his own words. 

Holding up the marker covered surface, Sasuke leaned over to read the poorly structured sentence. ‘U don’t understand, it’s over’, Sasuke’s brow twitched in thought. “What’s over dobe?” He snarled at the nickname but continued to write nonetheless. ‘My life’, after reading Sasuke seemed to smirk angering the blonde more, leading him to glare at the other. “Well you are quite the dramatic one aren’t you. I thought we just established that your life isn’t over.”

Naruto had already begun writing again before the other boy’s sentence was finished. ‘I’m broken’ he had scrawled. Sasuke sighed, not much emotion could be read in those charcoal eyes, this man was hard to understand. “Damaged and broken are not the same thing. You may be damaged but that can be repaired in time. To insinuate you are broken implies you believe you can’t be fixed.” Naruto was done with the conversation, he looked away once more letting his eyes rest outside on a small child running up to her mother who was holding the tiny form of an infant in her arms. 

He was startled when Sasuke had suddenly moved to stand next to him causing the heart monitor to pick up pace. The black haired boy glanced at it momentarily “relax, I’m going to rotate your arms to stretch out the joints. Tap the bed-rail twice if it hurts too much.” He breathed deep but nodded. Sasuke placed one hand under his bandaged forearm just below the elbow with skilled and gentle fingers, and the other at his shoulder feeling the joint moving beneath his touch. 

His breath hitched a little when he raised the arm up in the air and began to move it to the side a little in a circular motion. Once satisfied Sasuke muttered out a soft ‘good’ and repeated the action a couple more times. He brought Naruto’s hand down to hover over the bed only about an inch from the soft surface. “I’m going to let your arm go and I want to see if you can hold it up on your own for any amount of time. Muscles connect from your upper arm into your lower one so in order to keep the whole appendage up you must utilize all of these groups. If you can’t do it no worries and it shouldn’t hurt coming down since it’s just above the bed.” 

Naruto was nervous when Sasuke went to let go, and became only more frustrated when all his efforts to simply keep his arm lifted were met with the soft thump of it falling to the sheets. ‘Dead weight’ was the first thought in his head. Sasuke nodded and wrote something else on the clipboard which Naruto was curious to see, craning his head. “Nozy are we?” the Uchiha commented causing a blush to rise to his bruised cheeks which enticed a smirk from the larger male. If only he could talk right now he’d tell this bastard exactly what was on his mind. 

“I’m going to run the back of my pen over your fingers and I want you to nod if you can feel it.” He waited for the action and looked down curiously when he became impatient, noticing Sasuke had already been completing said action. Concentrating he could feel very slight pressure, but nothing more and had he not been looking he would never have registered it. The look on his face was enough for Sasuke to stop, grunting and writing again. Next he moved down to Naruto’s right leg, grabbing it first by the back of his ankle and then on the back of his knee, slightly grazing the soft skin of his thigh. This action caused the blonde, who had never been touched there before, to jump. 

The doctor offered a knowing look “I’m going to stretch your leg now, try to relax for me or it will make my job much more difficult.” Right after the words escaped those thin lips his leg was being raised and he struggled to shove the other off knowing he was not wearing underwear under his hospital gown. He probably looked more like a squirming child than anything and Sasuke chose to ignore it, moving his leg outwards. Naruto was sure his face was a brilliant shade of red right now and if he didn’t want to die before he certainly did now. 

“I’m a doctor Naruto, not a molester, it’s not the first time I’ve seen such things and if you couldn’t tell, I’m a man to. There is no need to work yourself up over something so frivolous.” Sasuke spoke with no emotion behind his words, this made Naruto relax a little but place his uninjured arm over his face so at the very least he didn’t have to witness his humiliation. After placing his casted right leg down, he reached for the left and repeated the actions before once more returning to his clipboard. 

“All right Naruto, you are doing good, next I want to see if we can sit you up just to move the muscles in your abdomen a little bit okay. I’m going to place your left arm around my shoulders, seeing as how it is uninjured, and support your back with my own arm. Rest assured I have done this many times and won’t drop you.” Sasuke explained his next move and Naruto was a little nervous since last time he tried to sit up it felt like he had be thrown into an electric storm. Despite this he still had some pride to keep so he didn’t move away like he wanted to when Sasuke came around to help him. 

When the doctor moved in close to him in order to grab his arm and wrap it around his own broad stature, Naruto couldn’t miss the unique smell that assaulted his nose. Dr. Uchiha smelled like a mix of dark roast coffee, something spicy like cinnamon or brown sugar and almost floral probably the result of whatever detergent he used, mixed with undertones of that sterile hospital smell and something purely masculine. It was a dark and complex scent that at the same time was soft and comforting. He had to catch himself as he weakly attempted to lean a little closer in an attempt to get a stronger sense of it straight from the source. 

When half of his body was practically leaning on the other man, he could feel the steady rise and fall of his chest and it made it hard to focus. His chest went all fluttery and his own breathing started to pick up. This feeling of warmth was soon replaced by a sharp searing pain that went through his rib cage. He felt his lips open in a silent scream and because no sound was coming out, the man behind him hadn’t noticed when it happened. Naruto started moving his left arm sporadically on the muscled shoulders of Dr. Uchiha desperately trying to get him to put him back down. When the man noticed his pain he finally put him back to rest on the pillows. 

“You’re fine, just breathe, the pain will dissipate and I’ll send a doctor in to up your morphine. Your ribs are still healing, I apologize for any discomfort I caused you.” The apology seemed empty, like he was used to giving out such words with no real emotions behind them so easily. Thinking about what kind of job he had, the black haired doctor probably was used to it by now. Even though Naruto was just any other patient for the bastard, this was still his life that was fucked up and he couldn’t help the surge of rage that went through him at the indifference the other man was expressing. 

In his anger, he picked up the whiteboard again, his arm had come over to rub the “I’m” off of the white surface leaving behind the dark lettering of the word “broken”. Now it was almost as if this inanimate object was trying to rub salt in his wounds. It wasn’t a statement made by him anymore, it was a fact the universe was trying to share with him. He threw the clipboard at the doctor who genuinely appeared shocked at the attack and looked up at the blonde. If Naruto had anymore tears left in him to let out he was sure they would be falling. But not from pain, from the pure and incomparable frustration that was tearing him apart from the inside out. 

Dr. Uchiha picked up the board staring at the word with a hard face before focusing that dark gaze back on him. The man almost seemed angry, which only helped fuel the fire in Naruto as this doctor who had everything going for him in life had no right to be angry right now. The blonde shot his doctor a challenging glare as if urging him to say anything that would give him a reason to launch himself over the edge of the bed. Sasuke threw the whiteboard on top of the metal computer desk near the large window on the far wall. The clang echoed through the room causing the blonde boy to flinch a little. Naruto tried and failed to push himself further into the bed, resulting in a warning twinge of ache in his right leg. 

When the doctor reached him he reached to the small table next to the bed picking up an orange crayon they usually left for children to help keep them calm while they recover. He brought it up and waved it in front of Naruto’s face, the dark haired man’s own face was still placid and serious as ever despite the almost comical way he was presenting the object. It was like he was presenting it as a key piece in his next magic trick on stage. Then he brought it up to hold the opposite side with his other hand and just like that he snapped it in half. Afterwards he looked back up at Naruto’s blue eyes that he knew were swimming with confusion at the weird action. 

He held up the two halves in front of the blondes swollen face. “This is broken” he spoke before tossing the crayons down and making his way to the end of Naruto’s bed and resting a hand on the casted leg. “This is broken” he stated again with a harder voice before continuing his talk. “While it is true you may never walk completely normal again with this leg and may require the assistance of a brace, it’ll become easier to manage over time.” Next he walked up to the top of Naruto’s bed and came in slightly closer, reaching his hand up in front of the blonde’s face. Naruto closed his eyes but snapped them back open when all he felt was a gentle tap on the side of his head. “This isn’t broken, it isn’t beyond complete repair. It is true that the things we face in life change us. But they only break you if you let them. And the way you let them break you, is to stop trying.” 

Naruto thought he almost saw compassion in the other’s eyes before said man straightened back up and cleared his throat. He spoke in an almost joking voice after that as if trying to lighten the atmosphere “of course, as your doctor, I can’t allow that to happen. Don’t give up on the rest of your life just because you’ve hit a rock in the road. Anyways, I’m pretty much done here today. As I said I just wanted to check to make sure that everything is healing as it should to allow proper movement in the future. All things considering, I’d say you are in pretty good condition dobe.” Dr. Uchiha finished the last line of what he was writing, capping the pen and clearly getting ready to make his exit. 

Just before he left though Naruto felt the cold plastic of that pen poking him in his forehead. He opened his eyes wide and faced his doctor who’s lips seemed to twitch up for just a second. “Until next time” he said in a soothing voice and suddenly Naruto could see one of the reasons why this man was a doctor. Although his composure sometimes came of as cold and distancing, this same calmness also appeared to stretch out to others around him. He had no doubt it would be mission impossible to try and stay mad around Dr. Uchiha. A newfound fire rested in his stomach with those eyes on him. He would make sure that he beat those odds stacked against him, he would get better and be a new, improved version of himself.


End file.
